Union, GE to bargain over layoff plan

Leaders of Local 506 announced they will enter into decision bargaining with the company over a recent announcement of a plans to move 575 jobs out of Erie

Jim Martin @ETNMartin

Leaders of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers at GE Transportation have said more than once that they don't have much faith in the decision bargaining process.

They're going to try it anyhow.

Following a brief meeting Wednesday afternoon with Gov. Tom Wolf, union President Scott Slawson announced that Local 506 will enter into talks with the company over its plan to move 575 jobs out of Erie and to shut down locomotive production.

"We have decided for our members, their families and the community that our best course of action is to enter into decision bargaining," Slawson said.

The union said the decision follows an economic impact study conducted for the union by the Erie consulting firm of Parker Phillips. That study that shows the total transfer of work since 2013 would result in a $2.7 billion blow to the Pennsylvania economy and a loss of $1.6 billion from the local economy.

Slawson, who didn't reveal the vote of the board's 17-member executive committee, stressed again that he's not especially hopeful that the process will help save jobs.

"We have been down this road too many times with zero results," he said.

Slawson said he was referring to past attempts to bargain over lost jobs, including failed negotiations in summer 2016 in Erie and at other GE plants across the country.

In fact, the union's study details results of more than 30 cases where GE workers have taken wage cuts and other concessions.

In most cases, the report notes, plants ultimately closed anyway.

Aside from those past failures to negotiate successfully, the union's distrust seems to be rooted in a sense that the company isn't being honest.

Slawson pointed to the company's repeated insistence that the move is driven by the need to boost efficiency.

"This isn't about efficiency," he said. "The Erie plant is already twice as efficient as Fort Worth."

What's the source of that judgment?

Slawson said he and other employees have seen the statistic touted by General Electric on television monitors located throughout the company. Recent figures, he said, show Fort Worth with a locomotive efficiency of 39 percent and the Erie plant with a rating of 78 percent.

A higher score is better.

While the union had said that total job losses could reach 1,000, including salaried positions, Cathy Heiman, a spokeswoman for the company, said Wednesday that no other positions are affected by potential layoffs.

The company has said repeatedly that the layoffs are only a possibility, suggesting that negotiations could change the outcome.

The existence of a 60-day window to bargain with the company over plans to cut jobs has been a longtime provision of the company's contracts with the union. The process is designed to allow the union and the company to reach an agreement that would reduce the size of the layoff.

In a statement Wednesday, the company said that it looked forward to the process.

"This request presents an opportunity for GE Transportation and the UE to continue discussions in good faith, through September 25, on critical issues facing the Erie site," the statement said. "During this process, it is our hope that the Union will provide meaningful proposals that help GE Transportation better compete in an increasingly challenging, competitive global rail market, address the need for cost competitiveness and continued site efficiencies."

Wolf said he felt that the union made the right decision, but said his conversations with the company, including CEO Jamie Miller, seem to suggest the company plans to move ahead with its plans.

"I think there are a lot of reasons to feel the possibilities are not that good," Wolf said.

But there's also a great deal at stake, he said.

"The plant, the company is really important," he said. "Any thought to take away the opportunities that have existed here since Thomas Edison's day is a blow to the community."

Jim Martin can be reached at 870-1668 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNMartin.